Lately when I join TF2 games, it seems there is always someone whining about the "long respawn on this server." And by "long" he means "default", as opposed to, say, the instant respawn that you see on some public servers.

Although I understand people like action, the respawn timer in TF2 (and most games) is there for a damn reason. Removing/altering it breaks the game balance.

Here are some ways shorter respawn times destroy TF2's great gameplay:

1. Sentries/buildings: They take a long time to build and upgrade. If a player risks killing one by having to be set back 15-30 seconds, the time it takes to build the Sentry is worth it. If your sentry kills someone who will be back to try again in 5 seconds, it will easily die and not be worth the time/metal it took to make it.

2. Gravelpit/Dustbowl: The only reason BLU (offense) has any chance to win is that RED (defense) must endure a long respawn. When both teams have short respawn, RED gains a huge advantage since they begin the map with all the cap points controlled.

3. Medics/Ubercharge: The whole point of Medics is to prevent death. If dying has no real penalty, Medics lose their intrinsic value. Ubercharges are less valuable when the people you gun down are back in action in 0-5 seconds.

4. Spies: Part of being a good Spy is pulling off saps/kills in isolation. It's easy to help the team when you can find 1-3 players you can easily kill, stopping their push/defense. But when there is a constant stream of enemies coming out of respawn, it is nearly impossible to get behind a player without there being a teammate in view to stop you.

5. Critical hits. People complain so much about crits, yet crits are caused by getting strings of kills in a short time period. Having more enemies constantly respawned adds fresh fodder for pro players, who can keep quad crit rates up the entire round. If there are no enemies to kill (normal respawn), a Soldier can't keep up the kill rate needed to spam crit rockets every other shot.

In short... "less QQ, more pew pew."